Bangladesh Angels Network Forays into Healthcare with doctorKoi Investment

Bangladesh Angels, the pioneering angel investment network in the country, closed a pre-seed investment into Renssoft Solutions Limited, makers of the widely used prescription software, doctorKoi Smart, along with a related doctors network and data portal. The official signing took place at DoctorKoi's office in Dhanmondi. 

Bangladesh has one of the lowest doctor-to-patient ratios in the world, with only one doctor for 3,000 patients. In this situation, the average doctor is spending 1.5 hours every day to hand write prescriptions. Those handwritten prescriptions are another means of suffering for patients, causing misinterpretation and misdiagnosis and often leaving them vulnerable to retailers wanting to push high margin but low quality medication. 

In the past two years, the Renssoft team have worked to introduce and mainstream a lightweight, easy-to-use prescription software, allowing doctors to auto-fill data and generate and print out easy-to-read prescriptions for patients. Not only that, they have partnered with some of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the country to customise and distribute the software to their doctors' networks. 

Over time, they have added value added services such as automated, SMS-based reminders to patients to take their medicines and check in with the doctor, as well as automation and analysis tools for pharmaceutical companies to increase sales, understand trends, and make better marketing and investment initiatives, and decisions.

The Covid-19 crisis has accelerated the move towards their vision of end-to-end digitisation of the doctor's chamber and doctor-patient interaction. This includes facilitating online booking and consultations between their doctor' network and patients. The team is also working on a consumer portal and a related e-commerce solution that would aggregate medicine orders from patients.

"I have had the privilege of being part of this company's journey since the very beginning, and I have seen very few combinations of extraordinary product vision and commercial savvy in the founding team in the healthtech ecosystem in Bangladesh, along with pure hustle. The tremendous growth of the business is a testament to the hard work and dedication of the founders, and we are glad to partner them with investors from among the network who have bought into their vision and have clear ideas to help," said Nirjhor Rahman, the CEO of Bangladesh Angels. 

Julian Weber, founder of Selise, and one of the angels in the syndicate adds that the Angels "made this investment in anticipation of the rapidly growing health care sector of Bangladesh and the convincing grassroots market and business development approach of Doctorkoi."

The investment from BAN is being used to develop the technology platform, a well-rounded team to execute on the business model as well as accelerating the product roadmap. Both new and existing investors are working together to help the company prepare itself for growth and a future seed round. 

Since the investment, the team has been able to expand their portfolio of pharmaceutical partners, and have seen a 250 percent increase in prescriptions being generated on the platform on a monthly basis over the previous year.